Showdown with UT a nod to long-ago past
Cougars to host rare series with ex-SWC rival
For the past 25 years, the University of Houston and Texas baseball programs sprinkled the occasional midweek game, exchanged pleasantries at the annual college tournament at Minute Maid Park and met a few times in the postseason, but nothing like the heyday of the Southwest Conference in the 1980s and 90s.
Then, almost a year ago, the coronavirus pandemic hit, causing athletic programs to reconsider travel and put together more regional-friendly schedules.
The Longhorns opted out of plans to play a return series at Cal State Fullerton. On the same weekend, the Cougars were unsure whether Bradley, a private school in Peoria, Ill., would be able to travel out of state.
A reunion was born. “It was a no-brainer to get this thing locked up and get those guys over here,” UH coach Todd Whitting said.
For the first time since the breakup of the SWC in 1996, the Cougars will host the 20th-ranked Longhorns in a three-game series beginning Friday at Schroeder Park.
Whitting credits UT coach David Pierce, a close friend and former UH player and assistant coach, for putting together a series that will have a postseason feel, except for a ballpark that will be essentially devoid of fans due to COVID-19 restrictions. The series will also be a reunion for UT assistant coach Sean Allen, a member of three straight postseason teams at UH and a former assistant coach.
“I think it’s a measuring stick for both teams this time of year,” Whitting said. “Although we won’t have the fans we would typically have, it’s going to be a super regional-type matchup.”
As a member of the Big 12, the Longhorns continue to play Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU, all former SWC members, on an annual basis. With the exception of the annual Silver Glove Series with crosstown rival Rice, UH has played UT, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and Texas A&M whenever they can, usually at the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park, or for a single midweek game.
“We’ve been lucky to get great teams on our schedule the last 10 or 11 years,” Whitting said. “This is a heavyweight (matchup) this weekend against two really good in-state programs.”
The last time the Longhorns visited the UH campus for a three-game series was April 6-7, 1996, a little more than a month before the SWC officially disbanded. Since then, UH and UT have met 21 times in the regular season — the last time at Schroeder Park in 2013 — and three other occasions in the postseason, including a pair of super regional pairings in 2002 and 2014, both won by the Longhorns.
Whitting, who played for the Cougars in the early to mid-90s and began his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater, said there was familiarity among players with the regional makeup of the SWC. UH no longer has those ties with the geographic footprint of the American Athletic Conference stretching across seven different states.
“They all knew each other really well,” Whitting said. “We play in the AAC against East Carolina, Tulane and all over the country. Those guys don’t have a track record with each other. That’s what was really fun back then. You played against a bunch of guys that you knew really well. It was real personal back then.”
Pierce said it was not only important to find a nearby opponent, but also one that would challenge the Longhorns. No stranger to tough schedules, UT (5-4) began the season with three straight losses to top-10 opponents Mississippi State, Arkansas and Ole Miss. UT has rebounded to win five of the last six games. UH (6-2), meanwhile, is off to its best start since 2015 and features a lineup that leads the nation with 20 home runs.
“I wasn’t just looking for a team to play,” said Pierce, who played in the outfield for the Cougars in the mid-80s. “I wanted to play a team that’s going to have a good facility, is going to have an opportunity to compete for their league, which means they are going to have a really good RPI, and a team that is wellcoached and will challenge us and give us everything we can handle.
“We like to schedule tough, and we like to play really good opponents. Here we are, a year removed from our last game (before the COVID-19 halt), going to Houston to rekindle some Southwest Conference days.”
UH left fielder Tyler Bielamowicz said a rare visit by the Longhorns sets up a big weekend for the Cougars.
“We’re fired up,” he said. “We have to come out and treat this like the postseason.”